Myrtle Beach

A longtime Columbia lawyer’s law license was suspended Thursday by the S.C. Supreme Court, a week after his arrest on child molestation charges.

Harry Gregory Jr., 61, former head of the State Accident Fund, was charged with lewd acts on a child from 2002 to 2004, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

“It is ordered that respondent’s (Gregory’s) license to practice law in this state is suspended until further order of this Court,” said the terse order, signed by all five justices. The order did not refer to the charges.

The Supreme Court’s practice is to temporarily suspend a lawyer’s law license if the attorney is charged with a felony or other serious crime. The suspension will normally be lifted if the defendant is acquitted or the charges are dismissed.

Gregory was arrested around dawn March 18 when a team of law officers showed up at his house on Windsor Road and summoned him outside with a loudspeaker. Officers then executed a search warrant on his home and yard, according to a sheriff’s department release.

Gregory was released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond that afternoon. That means he did not put up any money but has pledged to appear in court when summoned.

His lawyer, Greg Harris, said in an interview last week that Magistrate Mildred Metts found that Gregory was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community.

Gregory is a longtime Columbia area resident whose parents live in the area and who has been living in the same house for some 30 years, Harris said. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and its law school. Gregory has no prior criminal record and the allegations against him are more than 15 years old, Harris said.

Members of the sheriff’s department Fugitive Task Force, Special Victims Unit, Major Crimes Unit, and the Columbia Police Department participated in the arrest.

If convicted on the felony charge, Gregory would face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine, according to South Carolina law.

When Glenn Reese returned to work from the bank on Thursday, a line of cars snaked around his Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Spartanburg.

Were they the people getting a free doughnut by showing their COVID-19 vaccination card? Reese, who says he’s the longest-running Krispy Kreme franchisee in the world, thinks not.

He usually hangs out by the cash register, and he hasn’t seen many customers show their vaccine card and walk away with only the free doughnut. And he’s heard no one say they were enticed to get the vaccine just to get the freebie doughnut as a reward.

That’s why the former longtime South Carolina senator is wondering why there’s been so much chatter on social media about Krispy Kreme’s newest freebie promotion. Facebook, Twitter you name it — the internet in recent days is rife with criticism for the iconic Winston-Salem-based doughnut chain, criticism of the criticizers and praise for a simple day of sweetness.

Some on social media have taken the position that the company is encouraging people to make unhealthy choices. Then some said that those critics were fat-shaming. Some showed off their Krispy Kreme bags and delighted in a “hot now” yeasty glazed doughnut.

Others on social media just had some good, old fun with it, like Shannon Garrison, who tweeted, “The minute I got my second vaccination Krispy Kreme started calling everyday demanding I eat donuts. They eventually towed my car and said I couldn’t get it back until I caught up on my donut eating. (I was 8 days behind.)“

Reese, 79, is sort of unaware of it all.

“I don’t look at anything like that. I grew up talking on a real phone,” he said.

His wife, Janis, was keeping him up to date on the online brouhaha.

He said the free doughnut for a vaccine promotion is not political. In fact, it is a money-maker. Few people come in and just get one free doughnut. Most get the freebie and also buy a dozen or two dozen or even three.

He has it worked out in his mind that the people who buy two dozen are from Greer or Boiling Springs. Three dozen means Gaffney, and four to five dozen would be people from Springdale, N.C., or Union. The farther people drive, the more they buy, he figures.

That’s because Krispy Kreme has a specific business model. They only locate or approve stores in the middle of an area with 500,000 people, 30 miles apart. In other words, there’s no over-saturation. Chances are if you want a Krispy Kreme, you’ve got to drive for it.

Krispy Kreme’s Columbia-area store is in Cayce.

“I sell 1,500 to 2,000 a day. That ain’t nothing,” said Reese, who owns two stores in the Upstate.

His biggest seller? The original glazed. His favorite? Creme filled with chocolate on top.

Reese lost his state Senate seat last November after serving 30 years in the Legislature. His father, a former preacher, opened the family’s Krispy Kreme shop in an enviable Spartanburg location, close to downtown, to Wofford and Converse colleges and next door to Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.

Reese took over the business when his father died in 1979. In the years since, he has built a new building across the street — and moved the original building behind the new one to use as a warehouse — and opened a second store in Anderson.

Krispy Kreme has been around since 1937 when Vernon Rudolph bought the doughnut recipe from an Italian chef in New Orleans, the story goes. He opened a factory in what’s now Old Salem, originally to supply grocery stores.

The company says the doughnut aromas were so tempting, people started asking for doughnuts at the factory. So workers cut a hole through the wall and started selling. There are now 360 stores in the United States.

After Rudolph died, the business was sold to Beatrice Foods, then bought back by a group of franchisees and sold again in 2016 for $1.35 billion to JAB Holding Co. of Luxembourg.

A Krispy Kreme spokesperson could not be reached for comment, but Chief Marketing Officer Dave Skena told the business website Insider, “Whatever little things brands can do to help make it past the pandemic are good things.”

The free doughnut promotion is a long-time staple for Krispy Kreme. There are freebie days for teachers and veterans and even for non-vaccinated people, who can get a free doughnut every Monday from March 29 to May 24.

Reese wonders about the timing of the vaccine freebie because March is his busiest month. The company doesn’t need to give away free doughnuts now to boost sales, he said.

The vaccine promotion runs through the end of the year and is good every day. Yes, someone could go in every day and get a free doughnut by presenting their vaccination card. Reese hasn’t seen that happening, though.

In fact, he may be the only person who eats a Krispy Kreme doughnut every day. He’s been known to pull a misshapen one off the icing conveyor.

“You’ve got to test the quality of your product,” he said.

And, anyway, he’s been vaccinated.

A York County felon who was free on bail for drug charges was arrested again Wednesday for drug and weapon charges, officials said.

Desmon Ryan Bradley, 27, of Tomahawk Ridge, Rock Hill, is charged with possession of fentanyl and LSD with intent to distribute, trafficking heroin and methamphetamine, possession of drugs with intent to distribute near a school or park, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, according to police records and B.J. Kennedy, commander of the York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit.

Agents seized 51 grams of heroin, 34 grams of meth, 13 grams of fentanyl, and 5 doses of LSD, from the Tomahawk Ridge home Wednesday after serving a search warrant, Kennedy said.

Police also seized nine guns from the home, Kennedy said.

Police found amounts of heroin, fentanyl, meth, and LSD in felony amounts, according to court records.

A conviction for heroin trafficking of more than 28 grams in South Carolina carries a mandatory 25 years in prison, state law shows. All the other charges are felonies that carry sentences of at least five years to 25 years in prison for convictions.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system, according to the federal government National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Bradley was sentenced to a year in a S.C. Department of Corrections prison in 2019 for a previous felony conviction for distribution of meth, South Carolina court records show.

As a convicted felon, Bradley is banned under South Carolina law from having any weapons.

Then in 2020, Bradley was arrested in January and October on felony cocaine and meth charges in York County, according to court records. In both 2020 cases, Bradley was released on bail after the drug arrests, records show.

Court records show all three of those 2020 cases remain pending in York County criminal court.

Bradley remains in the York County Detention Center without bond on the charges from Wednesday’s arrest, jail records show.

The 9-year-old twins didn’t flinch as each received test doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine -- and then a sparkly bandage to cover the spot.

“Sparkles make everything better,” declared Marisol Gerardo as she hopped off an exam table at Duke University to make way for her sister Alejandra.

Researchers in the U.S. and abroad are beginning to test younger and younger kids to make sure COVID-19 vaccines are safe and work for each age. The first shots are going to adults who are most at risk from the coronavirus, but ending the pandemic will require vaccinating children too.

“Kids should get the shot,” Marisol told The Associated Press this week after the sisters participated in Pfizer’s new study of children under age 12. “So that everything might be a bit more normal.” She's looking forward to when she can have sleepovers with friends again.

So far in the U.S., teen testing is furthest along: Pfizer and Moderna expect to release results soon showing how two doses of their vaccines performed in the 12 and older crowd. Pfizer is currently authorized for use starting at age 16; Moderna is for people 18 and older.

But younger children may need different doses than teens and adults. Moderna recently began a study similar to Pfizer's new trial, as both companies hunt the right dosage of each shot for each age group as they work toward eventually vaccinating babies as young as 6 months.

Last month in Britain, AstraZeneca began a study of its vaccine among 6- to 17-year-olds. Johnson & Johnson is planning its own pediatric studies. And in China, Sinovac recently announced it has submitted preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing its vaccine is safe in children as young as 3.

Getting this data, for all the vaccines being rolled out, is critical because countries must vaccinate children to achieve herd immunity, noted Duke pediatric and vaccine specialist Dr. Emmanuel “Chip” Walter, who is helping to lead the Pfizer study.

Most COVID-19 vaccines being used around the world were first studied in tens of thousands of adults. Studies in children won’t need to be nearly as large: Researchers have safety information from those studies and subsequent vaccinations of millions of adults.

And because children’s infection rates are so low -- they make up about 13% of COVID-19 cases documented in the U.S. -- the main focus of pediatric studies isn't counting numbers of illnesses. Instead researchers are measuring whether the vaccines rev up youngsters’ immune systems much like they do adults’ — suggesting they'll offer similar protection.

Proving that is important because while children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill, at least 268 have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone and more than 13,500 have been hospitalized, according to a tally by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s more than die from the flu in an average year. Additionally, a small number have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to the coronavirus.

Apart from their own health risks, there still are questions about how easily children can spread the virus, something that has complicated efforts to reopen schools.

Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told Congress he expected that high school students likely would begin getting vaccinated in the fall. The elementary students, he said, may not be eligible until early 2022.

In North Carolina, Marisol and Alejandra made their own choice to volunteer after their parents explained the opportunity, said their mother, Dr. Susanna Naggie, an infectious disease specialist at Duke. Long before the pandemic, she and her husband, emergency physician Dr. Charles Gerardo, regularly discussed their own research projects with the girls.

In the first phase of the Pfizer study, a small number of children receive different doses of vaccine as scientists winnow out the best dosage to test in several thousand kids in the next phase.

“We really trust the research process and understand that they may get a dose that doesn’t work at all but may have side effects,” said Naggie, describing the decision-making that parents face in signing up their children.

But 9-year-olds have some understanding of the pandemic’s devastation and “it’s nice to participate in something where it’s not just about yourself but it’s about learning,” Naggie added. “They do worry about others and I think this is something that really, you know, struck home for them.”

For Marisol, the only part that was “a bit nerve-wracking and scary” was having to give a blood sample first.

The vaccination itself was “really easy. If you just sit still during the shot, it’s just going to be simple,” she said.

Nouvellement promu à la tête des Buffles du Borgou, le technicien ivoirien Sanou Dramane fera d’ores et déjà face à un certain nombre de chantiers. On note entre autres, l’amélioration des performances des quadruples champions du Bénin en Ligue des champions de la CAF et la conservation de leur couronne de champion au plan local.

L’objectif majeur à lui assigné par sa direction est celui de franchir un cap en Ligue des Champions de la CAF. Inscrit en lettre d’or dans le cahier de charges du technicien ivoirien, ce défi est l’une des priorités de Laurent Gnassounou. Les Buffles du Borgou en quatre participations en Ligue africaine des champions n’ont jamais réussi à convaincre. Que ce soit sous Ulrich Alahoutadé ou sous Muntari Idrissou ou encore Harouna Hamidou, les Buffles du Borgou n’ont jamais atteint la phase de groupe. Avec Ulrich Alahoutadé aux commandes en 2013-2014, les Buffles du Borgou se sont faits éliminer dès le premier tour des préliminaires en s’inclinant par deux fois face aux Nigérians (Enymba Fc.. ndlr) d’Abba. D’abord, ils se sont inclinés 3-0 à l’aller au Nigeria avant de prendre une fessée de 4 buts à 0 à domicile. Toujours en préliminaires de la LDC en 2017-2018 mais cette fois-ci sous les ordres du bénino-togolais Idrissou Muntari, les Buffles ont fait les frais de la vaillante équipe de l’Asec Mimosas de la Côte d’Ivoire. Après le match aller soldé par un score nul de 1 but partout à Cotonou, le match retour avait tourné en défaveur des verts et blancs de Parakou qui se sont inclinés 3-2 quelques jours plus tard à Abidjan. La plus récente des déceptions du club phare du Septentrion en LDC de la CAF était face aux Togolais (ASC KARA..ndrl) de Kara la saison écoulée. Jouable a priori, l’équipe de Kara a créé la surprise en éliminant les Buffles du Borgou sur la plus petite des marques après un match nul concédé par la troupe à Laurent Gnassounou à domicile sous le regard impuissant du technicien nigérien Harouna Hamidou. Des souvenirs qui font froid dans le dos au regard du parcours exceptionnel des universitaires de l’Ecole supérieure, d’administration, d’économie, de journalisme et des métiers de l’audiovisuel (Esae) en une seule participation en coupe CAF. Ben Sanou est donc appelé à corriger le tir et à faire mieux que ses prédécesseurs. Un défi certes colossal mais pas impossible !

Le titre au plan local, le second chantier

Triple champion du Bénin en titre, les Buffles du Borgou défendront leur titre cette saison 2020-2021. Habituée à jouer le titre, la troupe à Ben Sanou n’est plus forcément la fougue comme elle l’a été auparavant. Les Buffles du Borgou qui étaient en passe de perdre leur couronne la saison écoulée parce que logeant à la troisième place avant l’annulation du championnat pour cause de Covid-19, auront donc fort à faire cette nouvelle saison face à des équipes comme Ayema, Esae Fc, Aspac et autres. Qu’il vous souvienne Ayema et Esae Fc occupaient respectivement la première place et la deuxième place avant l’annulation du championnat engendrée par la crise sanitaire. Tout comme les Buffles, ces deux équipes seront des prétendants sérieux au titre de champion du Bénin. Sanou Dramane saura-t-il offrir un quatrième titre d’affilée de champion du Bénin aux Buffles ? Seul le temps nous donnera raison !

Ouzérou Orou Gado